


Please Owl Before Dropping By

by Lallyrose



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Good Severus Snape, HG/SS, Harry Potter Epilogue What Epilogue | EWE, Severus Snape Lives, meet the parents, snamione, the parents being Harry and Ron, very small amount of Ron Bashing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-22
Updated: 2020-11-22
Packaged: 2021-03-10 04:28:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,193
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27667498
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lallyrose/pseuds/Lallyrose
Summary: Harry and Ron drop by to deliver some good news, but they really should have owled first.
Relationships: Hermione Granger/Severus Snape
Comments: 8
Kudos: 164





	Please Owl Before Dropping By

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Darling Death Eater](https://archiveofourown.org/works/24932089) by [Recreational_Potions](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Recreational_Potions/pseuds/Recreational_Potions). 



> I have been reading lots of fics about the first time people discover Snape and Hermione's relationship, and I was desperate to write my own.  
> It did unfortunately end up being rather reminiscent of one of my favourite fics "Darling Death Eater" by Recreational_Potions. I do believe that it is different enough, and that it has my own spin. But also that it wouldn't be right of me to post this without saying, if you want to read a similar and far superior story please go and check it out.

“She won’t mind Harry! All she does is work, she won’t have been partying last night, she gets up at 7am even on the weekends, you know that! And, she’ll want to know!”

Ron was talking loudly in a crowded corridor in the ministry of magic. People were starting to stare, although it wasn’t that unusual a sight to see the boy who lived and his closest friend arguing at work.

“Yes you’re right” Harry agreed “But we can’t just floo into her house without an invite. She could be busy or in the shower or something. We’ll apparate to the nearest apparition point and then walk from there, it’s still early.”

“Fine, but we’ll go from your office, I can’t be bothered to walk to the entrance, plus it’s bloody freezing outside”

***

They found themselves in the outskirts of London looking for Hermione’s house.

“It’s way further than I remember, are you sure we’ve not taken a wrong turn?” Ron complained

“Ron you practically lived with Hermione for 6 months, have you really forgotten how to get there?”

“Dunno” Ron shrugged and kicked a small stone with his shoe “Been a while hasn’t it”

It had been over a year since Ron and Hermione broke up. Even though Hermione had instigated the breakup, Ron had moved on very quickly with pictures of Ron and a new girl hitting the front page of the prophet every few weeks. It had caused a lot of tension in their little triad, and Harry was glad that they had both moved on, he didn’t think he could handle any more drama.

They turned a corner onto Hermione’s street and felt the ripple of wards pass over them- Hermione was very protective of her home. Even though the war was over, the war against journalists was just as difficult and seemingly endless. After the war Hermione had moved house every few months trying to keep her location a secret to stop the reporters from banging on her door and trying to take pictures of her through gaps in her curtains. She finally settled on this place a year and a half ago and it was her safe space, she wouldn’t let just anyone drop by.

Harry looked pensive “Do you think she’ll mind?”

“What? That her research project has been fast tracked by the Minister of Magic herself? She’ll be bloody ecstatic!”

Harry laughed “I mean that we took it upon ourselves to march over to her house at 8:30am on a Saturday morning to tell her the news”

“Come on mate, she lives to work, we’ve barely seen her these past few months because she’s been busy with this research proposal. She’ll be pleased she can stop worrying about it!”

“Yeah I suppose you’re right”

It was November and really quite cold so Harry was glad when they finally reached her doorstep and knocked on the door. At first nothing happened, Ron started breathing into his fists and Harry rubbed his palms together. He thought he could hear shuffling and movement through the door, he raised his fist to knock again when the door suddenly opened.

Hermione was wearing one slipper and her pyjama top was on inside out, her hair which was naturally quite voluminous anyway, looked enormous and to top it off she was wearing a long stripy scarf.

Harry glanced at Ron who looked utterly confused at Hermione’s state of apparel, which to be honest so was he.

“Were you about to leave?” Ron asked

Hermione laughed nervously, her hands going to the scarf “Oh, no, no just feeling a little cold that’s all”

Harry noticed she looked a little sweaty. “Are you ill?”

“No I’m fine, I just wasn’t expecting you” She paused “Actually, what _are_ you doing here?”

“Oh we have amazing news, can we come in?” Ron had obviously decided to dismiss Hermione’s state of dress and plough on with their original mission, he started to look over her shoulder into the small house. “Come on Herms, it’s freezing out here, put the kettle on won’t you?” He pushed past her into the living room and sat on the sofa.

Harry gave her an apologetic look, although he wasn’t sure she noticed, she just turned and followed Ron into the living room.

“Uh, ok, um, what kind of tea would you like?”

“Just regular is fine, two sugars” Ron responded.

“Yes, I remember”

Harry closed the door behind him and looked into the small house. Something was off, he could tell immediately, even though Ron had obviously not noticed. Hermione was usually very neat but there were cushions from the sofa on the floor, the rug was scrunched, the vase on her desk by the window had been knocked over. It looked like there had been a fight and someone had tried to tidy the mess very quickly. Was Hermione in danger? He looked down and saw a pair of boots on the shoe rack much larger than his own, and certainly much larger than Hermione’s. He doubted an attacker would take the time to remove his shoes and place them neatly on the rack.

He rushed over to where Ron was sitting.

“We should go, I think Hermione has a man over” Harry whispered

Ron looked taken aback “What? Don’t be stupid it’s _Hermione_. If she was seeing someone, she would have told us.”

“Well, then maybe it’s a one night stand” Harry was whispering much louder now. He grabbed Ron’s arm and tried to pull him off the sofa “Come on lets go!”

Ron pulled his arm back “Harry stop being ridiculous and sit down”

Hermione entered from the kitchen with a tray of tea things and Harry reluctantly sat down realising they had missed their window for escape.

She sat down on the sofa opposite them and lent forwards to pour the tea, her scarf slipped down exposing 2 fairly large bright purple hickeys. Ron’s jaw dropped.

“Is that a hickey!?” he exclaimed

Hermione’s hand flew to her neck as she blushed deeply.

“What? No! Of course not, I tripped… I tripped and fell down”

Ron was back to looking confused and Harry started laughing.

“You tripped and fell? You expect us to believe that?” Harry asked.

Hermione started spluttering, clearly trying to come up with an adequate explanation when a voice came from upstairs.

“Hermione we tried it your way, and as I expected it did not work”

Harry’s blood ran cold, he knew that voice, but surely not, it couldn’t be.

Severus Snape appeared at the top of the staircase in loose sweatpants, no shirt and carrying a towel. He started down the stairs “They may well be idiots, but they are not completely clueless”

Hermione put her head in her hands, while Harry was trying to figure out if Snape had just payed him a compliment.

Ron was still putting the pieces together. “Why is Snape here? Did he stay the night? Wait, Hermione you only have one bedroom… You only have one bed!” He was looking genuinely concerned.

Snape sighed “Then again I could be wrong, I’ll be in the shower if anyone needs me” He walked across the living room placing a kiss on Hermione’s head of curls as he passed her. Hermione was busy chewing on her cuticles but gave him a small smile as he did so. She turned to face back towards the two boys staring at her with wide eyes.

She gave a nervous smile “You really should have owled first”

But Ron still had questions.

“Snape gave you those hickeys?”

“Yes Ron”

“So he stayed the night?”

“Yes Ron”

“He’s stayed over before?”

“Yes Ron!” Harry could tell she was starting to get annoyed

“But he was your teacher!”

“Ye-“

Harry butted in; this could go on for a while. “Hermione, how did this happen?”

Hermione lent back in her chair. “I know, I know I should have told you sooner, it’s just I knew you were going to react, well, like this.” She paused, figuring out where to start. “It started at work, Sev’s potion lab is right next to mine, and you know how busy I’ve been with my research; I’ve hardly left my lab, and Sev’s the same. We started having lunch together, and he asks such good questions, I never would have gotten so far, so quickly without him. Anyway, there was a work party, someone’s birthday, it’s not important, but we both got a little tipsy and I was still new so didn’t really know anyone and he’s not very social, so we sort of went off by ourselves and I kissed him. It’s sort of just gone from there I suppose.” 

She sat forward again and tidied up the stack of Potions Monthly magazines which were on the floor and finished pouring the tea in the first mug, Harry poured in some milk and two sugars and tried to hand the mug to Ron who was staring into space, after a few seconds harry gave up and placed the mug on a coaster in front of him. Harry didn’t know what to say, his head was still reeling over the fact that Hermione had called Snape, Sev. The silence was starting to get awkward until Hermione finally broke it.

“I know this is weird, but Severus is nothing like the way he was when we were students. Even ignoring the fact he was a double agent and how much pressure that was, lets face it we were annoying children, I literally set his robes on fire, we stole ingredients from stores and blamed him for almost everything that went wrong.” She had finished pouring the tea while she was talking and picked up her own mug. She raised her head to see the two boys staring at her in disbelief. “I’m not trying to excuse his behaviour, I know he was also just a miserable snarky bastard. All I can say is that he’s not like that anymore, he’s kind and attentive, he’s so clever we just have endless debates on everything from potion ingredients to goblin rights. But most of all he just makes me so happy.”

“But he’s so old” Ron had managed to bring himself back to the conversation. “Does his ‘you know’ even still work?”

Hermione gave a small squeal “Ron you can’t ask that!”

Harry chuckled in his tea deciding not to mention that given the state of the living room “it” had been working perfectly the night before, most likely exactly where they were sitting now. It had definitely been a shock at first, but if what Hermione was saying was true, it made sense. Not many people could keep up with her intellectually, if she had found someone who could, and who was kind and made her happy, who was he to complain.

Hermione was still trying to answer Ron’s question. “He’s younger than your parents Ron, and I’m sure they still…” Ron’s ears suddenly turned pink. “Sorry, sorry, I’m sure you don’t want to think about that, I’m just trying to explain… Oh this is a mess”

Snape chose this moment to exit the bathroom. “So, going well, is it?” He smirked at Hermione. He was holding his sweatpants now and only wearing a towel around his waist.

Hermione feigned a look of horror. “Sev, I think we’ve already scarred them enough for one day, put on some clothes!” But she was holding back a smile.

Snape rolled his eyes “Very well” he walked back across the living room and gave Hermione a genuine smile. Hermione looked as if she could melt.

Harry coughed awkwardly, and gave a Ron a slight nudge “I guess we better be off then, leave you to it, you know” 

“Oh don’t feel you have to” Hermione replied. “But I understand you both might want some time to process this”

“A few years ought to do it” Ron muttered under his breath.

Harry got up rather quickly and pulled at Ron’s arm. “Come on Ron, we’ve got stuff to do”. All he wanted to do now was get out of there. Ron seemed to understand.

“Yeah sorry to dash off Herms, but no off days for an Auror, you know how is.”

They all hastily said their goodbyes at the door, and Harry and Ron stepped outside.

“Bye!” Hermione said with a wave “Please owl before you drop by next time” and closed the door a little to quickly.

“Well” Harry turned to Ron “Serves us right for assuming she wouldn’t be up to anything”

Ron lifted his eyebrows in response. “I know right, I just can’t get my head round it”.

They started their walk back.

“Damn!” Ron exclaimed “We didn’t even tell her the news!”

Suddenly a laugh escaped his mouth, and once it had, the rest followed and he crumpled into a heap on the ground laughing helplessly, Harry couldn’t help but join in.

In the house behind them Severus and Hermione were watching the boys breakdown through the upstairs window.

Hermione turned to Severus “You know that actually went better than I expected”


End file.
